Day 56 -- Heading east for Oregon

Travel   From: Tacoma, WA   To: Baker City, OR   Distance: 388 mi (495 km)   Travel time w/brks: 7 hr 14   Distance since start: 11,320 mi (18,2032 km)

Tuesday 8/15/2006

With the trailer rigged to go, we hit the road just after 6AM. My goal was to avoid the heaviest part of traffic. This worked fine. We started out on I-90. Sort of odd, since we know what it looks like at the other end. Once we worked our way through the mountains to the east of Tacoma we came upon a desert. This was a very curious transition. One moment we were in a lush pine forest and the next moment we're in a hot and dry desert.

At a desert rest area somewhere along I-84 in Washington, not far from Yakima

Man over nature as seen from the rest area. The desert valley is turned into produce with the help of watering

Continuing along I-84 towards Baker City, OR. I was not a able to figure out the purpose of the noisy grooves in the road.

In one of the many podcasts that we listened to we learned that water management in this part of the country, especially in Yakima Valley, was a tough business. There is only so much water to go around and rights have been granted based on seniority. That sounds simple enough. Only problem is that those who are more senior may be further downstream from those that are less senior. So this is all managed with an inspector who regulates gates along the irrigation channels and rivers to ensure that everyone gets their fair share.

We made good progress and arrived in Baker City around 1:30PM. I had not made any reservation so we just looked for a campground that seemed reasonable. We picked a Trav-L-Park in town and it turned out to be a good choice for our brief stay. We ate a bit in the trailer and then headed into town to buy some groceries. After we had stocked up we had time for a bit of exploration. We learned that there was an Oregon Trails visitors center just outside of town, run by the BLM (Bureau of Land Management, the entity of the US government in charge of managing large spaces of government land around the country).

Oregon trail map shows how people migrated west for a better life

I borrowed the above map without permission from a website at Idaho State University. Click here for a direct link to that site where you can find the above picture and other helpful information about the trail. One of the things about this trail is that it was a very tough journey, generally by foot, accompanied by cattle, wagons, etc. The main journey was almost 2,000 miles long. Many perished during this journey. About 1 in 10 died.

Traditional wagons of the time on display outside (in the Oregon desert)

The inside of the visitors center was full of informative displays and short movies

Like a true Oregon Trail traveler, Karl packs his wagon with way too much gear

On our way back from the visitors center we drove by a huge collection of old farm equipment, planted in two fields. We did not have time to stop, but I would have liked to.

Graveyard for old farm equipment in Baker City, OR

As I have mentioned elsewhere, our black water tank is leaking so we have not used it since we left Juneau in Alaska. This means we need to use public bathrooms or those at campgrounds. As I was drying my hands at the bathroom of my campground I was just letting my eyes roll over the bathroom and, eventually, on the hand dryer I was using at the time. And I got a good chuckle out of it..

This might bring out a chuckle... if you have an Airstream from the 70s

Another curious item we saw at the campground was the car someone towed behind their motor home. I talked with the owner and he used to have a Jeep that they used for excursions. But he found it too rough. So he built a custom version of a Lincoln Town car. How about this? It sports all the comforts of a luxury car yet allows you to go off road with it.

Custom Lincoln Town car used as a "toad"

After dinner we went to bed. This had been yet another long day.

Campground   Name: Mtn. View Holiday Trav-L-Park, Baker City, OR   Our hookups: water, 30amp, sewer   WiFi: Yes ($2)   GSM service: Yes   TV Channels: Don't know   Cost: $30.79/night   Reservation mode: Drop in

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All Pictures (c) 2006 Hamnqvist, Background features the Yukon Sky.